Why Social Media - Not Violence - Could Bring Change to Oman

BBC: The Arab Spring left the Gulf state of Oman relatively unscathed, with long-term ruler Sultan Qaboos moving to quieten discontent by introducing reforms, but how long can tradition hold back calls for change?

I woke to the roar of total silence.

Issa, an Omani bedouin of the Al-Maashani tribe, made tea as the orange-lit theatrics of sunrise began behind us. It was just him, me and the soundless dunes of the Empty Quarter.

Dinner had been Issa's too - chopped camel meat fried in camel fat, chewy and delicious, washed down with ginger tea.

Afterwards, we had chit-chatted companionably in the dark, staring upwards as the Milky Way slid across a pinprick sky, like the arch above Wembley Stadium.

We were camped in what the explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes had called "a place of wind and spiders". In his day it was known as Fasad, or "decay".

The spot had since been euphemistically renamed Al-Hashman, meaning wholesome - but with its broken walls and foully undrinkable spring water, that struck me as an oddly mirthless piece of spin.

There is a lot of that in Oman these days, as the country paddles ever harder to maintain its trademark swan-like serenity.

The Arab Spring has come knocking. Last month a local journalist was jailed, accused of slander - the most high-profile of, so far, 42 court cases related to issues of public protest. » | Matthew Teller, BBC News, Oman | Thursday, November 08, 2012

Abu Qatada Wins Appeal against Deportation to Jordan

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Terror suspect Abu Qatada has won his battle against deportation to Jordan to face trial.

The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) upheld his appeal after his lawyers claimed he would not get a fair trial.

The radical cleric, once described as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, was convicted of terror charges in Jordan [in] his absence in 1999.

Home Secretary Theresa May had been given assurances by Jordan that no evidence gained through torture would be used against him.

A Home Office spokesman said the Government will apply to appeal against the decision.

He said: "The Government strongly disagrees with this ruling. We have obtained assurances not just in relation to the treatment of Qatada himself, but about the quality of the legal processes that would be followed throughout his trial. » | Telegraph reporters | Monday, November 12, 2012

La Pologne confrontée à une page noire de son histoire

LE FIGARO: Un film évoquant le pogrom de Jedwabne, commis en 1941, vient de sortir sur les écrans polonais, relançant un douloureux travail de mémoire.

Vingt-trois ans après la chute du communisme, la Pologne n'en finit pas de déterrer les tabous historiques occultés pendant plusieurs décennies par la pensée unique de l'ère soviétique. Le cinéma a pris sa part dans cette recherche archéologique. Qu'il s'agisse des crimes orchestrés par Staline (Katyn d'Andrzej Wajda), du génocide perpétré par les nazis (Sous la ville d'Agniezska Holland) ou bien encore des atrocités commises par les Polonais eux-mêmes. Le cinéaste Wladyslaw Pasikowski vient ainsi de relancer un débat brûlant avec «Poklosie» (La glanure), qui évoque l'une des pages noires des relations judéo-polonaises. Le film retrace le massacre de Jedwabne, un village du nord-est de la Pologne, où plusieurs centaines de juifs furent brûlés vifs par leurs voisins polonais en 1941. » | Par Arielle Thedrel | lundi 12 novembre 2012

11 novembre: décorations vandalisées
LE FIGARO: Le maire d'Ille-sur-Têt (Pyrénées-Orientales) a exprimé aujourd'hui une vive émotion devant des actes de vandalisme commis contre les ornements et les drapeaux installés pour le 11 novembre au monument aux morts de cette bourgade catalane.

Les banderoles bleu-blanc-rouge et des drapeaux français ont été saccagés quelques heures avant la cérémonie officielle dimanche. Un des drapeaux a été brûlé, d'autres jetés dans une poubelle. » | AFP | lundi 12 novembre 2012

LE FIGARO: GB: arrêté pour avoir brûlé un coquelicot » | Par lefigaro.fr | lundi 12 novembre 2012

Russian Police Detain Members of Banned Islamic Group
REUTERS.COM: (Reuters) - Russian police have arrested six members of a banned Islamic group on suspicion of recruiting followers in Moscow mosques and possessing weapons, the Interior Ministry said on Monday.

Russian authorities are concerned about the prospect of Islamist militants becoming more of a threat outside the heavily Muslim North Caucasus, which is plagued by an insurgency rooted in two post-Soviet separatist wars in Chechnya province.

The Interior Ministry said the detainees were members of the Islamic Revival Party, which was designated as an international terrorist group by Russia's Supreme Court and banned.

Police searching places where the detainees were staying found nine hand grenades and other weapons and ammunition, as well as extremist literature. » | Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Jon Boyle | MOSCOW | Monday, November 12, 2012

Militany Muslim Salafists Seize Church Land in Cairo in Protest of New Copt Leader
CATHOLIC ONLINE: Militants seize the South Mina Church in Shubra al-Kheima, in city's center

Nearly 100 Muslim extremists - the hard-line Salafists in Egypt, wielding sticks and rods seized land near the South Mina Church in Shubra al-Kheima last week. The seizure of the land in the middle of Cairo was in protest of the election of the new Copt leader, Patriarch Tawadros II, who was selected in a ceremony last week.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Police reportedly stood idly as the Islamists occupied the parcel of land for more than a day. Signs were erected which read "Al-Rahma Mosque." Law enforcement later moved in after the Interior Ministry was notified.

The demonstration deemed symbolic in nature was in reprisal against a statement by newly elected Patriarch Tawadros II against having Sharia law included in the new Egyptian constitution. Bishop Antonius Morcos, who is the spokesman for Patriarch Shenouda III's successor, heads the diocese. » | Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM) | Sunday, November 11, 2012

Accountant Seeks to Prove He Is Princess Margaret's Secret Son

THE GUARDIAN: Robert Brown, who believes Princess Margaret hid a pregnancy in 1955, is fighting for access to documents relating to her will

A Jersey accountant is restarting his legal battle to find out if he is Princess Margaret's secret illegitimate son.

Robert Brown, 57, said he was prepared to spend up to £100,000 fighting for access to sensitive documents relating to her will and he has appointed solicitors to obtain secret court papers, known as a practice direction, about the sealing of royal wills drawn up around the time of Margaret's death in 2002.

Brown believes he was born to Princess Margaret in 1955 and his father was possibly Robin Douglas Home. He claims that the later stages of her pregnancy were covered up with the use of body doubles and that he was sent to Kenya to be brought up as the child of Cynthia and Douglas Brown in Nairobi.

He believes the documents will show how Buckingham Palace, the attorney general and a senior judge acted together to maintain secrecy around the Queen's sister's last testament, in which he hopes details of his birth are included.

Brown's case has been dismissed by lawyers for the royal family in a previous court hearing as that of "a fantasist seeking to feed his private obsession". But he insists he has the right to find out if the Queen's sister is his mother and he has appointed the law firm Christian Khan, which describes itself as having a reputation for "acting in political cases where individuals bring or defend proceedings against larger organisations, including the state". » | Robert Booth | Sunday, November 11, 2012

Col Gaddafi’s Children 'Flee Algeria’
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Col Muammar Gaddafi’s children have fled Algeria, fearing the oil-rich dictatorship’s improving relations with the new Libya authorities is undermining their safe haven.

Tight restrictions on the family and the prospect of a deal to allow Gaddafi’s widow back into Libya prompted the family to seek refuge elsewhere in Africa, regional officials said.

Reports in the Arabic press this week said that Aisha Gaddafi, the lawyer and most prominent member of the clan, had moved with her brother Hannibal and half-brother Mohammad to an African country.

Because of the UN flight ban on the Gaddafi inner circle, the siblings could most readily gain access to Niger, the impoverished Saharan state where a third brother, Saadi, lives on the presidential compound.

Niger is one of the few options open to the family as offers of asylum in Zimbabwe and Venezuela were impractical. Other countries are less reliable. Mauritania extradited Abdullah Senussi, Aisha’s uncle and Gaddafi’s intelligence chief back to Libya this summer.

A series of recent developments triggered the decision to leave the highly protected, secluded compound that the Gaddafis were granted inAlgerian government, a family associate said. “Definitely they wanted to get out,” he said.

Aisha Gaddafi is said to have grown increasingly frustrated with the restrictions on her communications imposed by the Algerian regime. » | Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent | Sunday, November 11, 2012

Another Idiot from Saudi! Talking to Foreign Media Is ‘Haram:’ Saudi Grand Mufti

AL ARABIYA NEWS: Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti has issued a religious edict prohibiting contact and cooperation with foreign media outlets seeking to “spread chaos and strife in Muslim lands.”

He urged people instead to address their concerns through writing directly to responsible authorities.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Asheikh told worshipers during a Friday sermon held in a mosque in the capital Riyadh that people should not contact foreign media outlets to “divulge the country’s secrets or address various matters” because these outlets “are only concerned with dividing people and striking the unity of the nation.”

He said doing so was tantamount to “treason and major crime.” » | Al Arabiya | Sunday, November 11, 2012

HT: Fasdunkle »

Britain Could Intervene Militarily in Syria in Months, UK's Top General Suggests

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Britain could intervene militarily in Syria in the next few months, the country’s most senior general has said.

Gen Sir David Richards said there were contingency plans in place for a “very limited” response in the case of a worsening humanitarian situation in Syria.

The admission is the most serious warning yet that Britain is preparing for some sort of military involvement in Syria. In the past week, British policy has moved from admitting that it wanted to help organise the disparate rebel groups to discussing full blown military intervention.

It comes on the eve of a meeting of the National Security Council this week which will be devoted to the Syrian civil war.

In an interview on the Andrew Marr programme on BBC1, General Richards, the Chief of the Defence Staff, suggested that Britain could intervene militarily this winter when desert temperatures plummet and lives are put at risk.

He said it would be a "huge effort", adding: “The humanitarian situation this winter I think will deteriorate and that may well provoke calls to intervene in a limited way. » | Christopher Hope, Senior Political Correspondent | Sunday, November 11, 2012

My comments:

This is stupid. This is ridiculous. Leave Bashar Al-Assad where he is. Toppling him will lead to another hardline, Islamist state. What idiots we have at the top of our political establishment, what idiots we have at the top of our military. Can't this country keep its bleeding nose out of other people's squabbles for once? Does this little island have to involve itself in every conflict in the world? Let the Saudis sort it out! Let other Muslim nations sort it out! Why the hell should our troops risk life and limb for this non-cause? – © Mark

This comment can also be found here

Gen Sir David Richards has got to be stupid if he is mulling the idea of war in Syria. What does he want to start: the next world war? – © Mark

This comment can also be found here

AGAIN, we are going to do the Saudis' dirty work for them. One can only shake one's head. The British establishment is worse than stupid; it's criminal. We'll send our troops to risk life and limb for a country which finances the jihad against us. How stupid is that? – © Mark

This comment can also be found here

Lord Browne Raises Questions Over City 'Homophobia’

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Lord Browne, the former chief executive of BP, has raised the spectre of homophobia in the City and questioned why there are no openly homosexual chief executives running Britain’s biggest companies.

The industrialist, who resigned from the oil giant in 2007 after lying in court to cover up circumstances linked to his sexuality, believes that homosexual men and women may not be being chosen for top jobs at FTSE 100 companies because of their sexuality.

Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, Lord Browne, who is now openly homosexual, said that he believes gay rights should be as high on the agenda as other issues such as gender and race.

His comments, in the wake of the recent campaign to ensure fair representation of women in senior board roles, shine a light on an issue that is rarely discussed in the upper echelons of Britain’s leading companies.

Asked if homophobia exists in the City of London, Lord Browne said: “There appear to be no out gay chief executive officers in the top companies listed on the FTSE.

“This cannot be for want of talent. That leaves two explanations: either LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] candidates are self-selecting away from these positions, or they are not being selected for them.” » | James Quinn, Deputy Sunday Business Editor | Sunday, November 11, 2012

François Hollande rend hommage à "tous les morts pour la France"

REUTERS FRANCE: PARIS (Reuters) - François Hollande a présidé pour la première fois dimanche à Paris les cérémonies commémorant l'armistice du 11 novembre 1918, une journée du souvenir dédiée désormais à "tous les morts pour la France" en vertu d'une loi voulue par Nicolas Sarkozy et votée par le Parlement en février dernier.

Le chef de l'Etat s'est notamment recueilli sur la tombe du Soldat inconnu, sous l'Arc de Triomphe, entouré de Caroline, 14 ans, et Charles, 15 ans, les enfants de militaires tués cette année en Afghanistan.

Les noms des 13 soldats français tués en 2012 en Afghanistan ont été cités, en présence de leurs familles, avec lesquelles François Hollande s'est entretenu. » | Sophie Louet | dimanche 11 novembre 2012

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Assange’s Health Could Drastically Worsen in Embassy – Lawyer
RT.COM: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could suffer serious health problems if he stays in London’s Ecuadorian embassy, warned his lawyer. The whistleblower faces immediate arrest and extradition to Sweden should he leave the building.

“Assange is in good health, but the situation is getting steadily worse,” lawyer Baltasar Garzon said during an anti-corruption conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The confined conditions in which Assange is currently living could cause him to “suffer from serious medical problems,” and lead to “psychological issues,” Garzon said.

Assange has been confined tinside Ecuadorian Embassy since June 19 in conditions Garzon described as worse than prison. Assange took refuge there to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning on charges of sex crimes.

According to Garzon, Assange is not seeking to escape questioning in Sweden, as they allegedly have evidence proving his innocence. “We want the trial to go ahead in Sweden, but we want a guarantee of his safety.” Garzon said the whistleblower risked being re-extradited to US jurisdiction should he be taken to Sweden. Previously, Ecuadorian vice foreign minister Marco Albuja said that he was “very worried” for Assange’s welfare, and that “he had lost a lot of weight.” » | Sunday, November 11, 2012

French Nationalists in Paris Protest Extreme Islam
ABC NEWS: Hundreds of French nationalists have demonstrated in Paris against Islamist extremism, chanting the French anthem and saying the religion has no place in the country.

Protester Romain Cyiril says, "France was always a welcoming country, but for the first time we have to deal with a religion which can't and doesn't want to integrate itself." » | Associated Press, PARIS | Saturday, November 10. 2012

LA VOIX DE LA RUSSIE: Une manifestation anti-islamique s'est déroulée à Paris » | dimanche 11 novembre 2012

Egypt’s Salafists Deploy Virulent Rhetoric, Accuse Liberals of Being Foreign Agents

BIKYA MASR: CAIRO: On Friday, Mohamed Amr watched as ultra-conservative Salafists converged on Egypt’s iconic Tahrir Square. Their deafening chants of “Islamic state” resounding throughout downtown Cairo. For him, a liberal activist wounded in the January 2011 uprising that ousted the country’s long-time dictator Hosni Mubarak, it was frustrating.

“I am very worried about the future of the country and how the Salafists are trying to accuse liberals and those of us who fought and bled for change as foreigners in our own country,” he told Bikyamasr.com.

“It is a sad time for the Egyptian revolution. It might be dead and what we are seeing is something very scary,” the former member of the April 6 Youth Movement added.

Making matters worse for the left is the growing anti-liberal sentiment growing on the streets and in mosques.

On Friday, as thousands of puritan Salafists gathered in Tahrir Square to demand that the new constitution for Egypt be an Islamic one, member of al-Gama’a Islamiya Sheikh Mohamed el-Soghir accused secular and liberal activists of pushing a Western agenda.

“Our Prophet [Mohamed] fought the infidels of Mecca, who are now represented by the Liberals,” said El-Soghir in comments published by local media. » | Yussif Ibrahim | Sunday, November 11, 2012

Remembrance Sunday 2012
Let us remember the fallen – those who sacrificed their lives for us and our freedoms

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Queen leads tributes to fallen on Remembrance Sunday: Remembrance Sunday events were being held across the country today in tribute to members of Britain and the Commonwealth's Armed Forces who have died during conflicts. ¶ The Queen attended a service at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, where she laid a wreath in memory of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. ¶ She was joined by host of senior royals, Prime Minister David Cameron and leaders of opposition parties for the service, a focal point of the nation's Remembrance Sunday ceremonies. ¶ The first stroke of Big Ben at 11am and the firing of a gun from Horse Guards Parade by The King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery marked the start of two minutes' silence, which was followed by The Last Post, sounded by the Buglers of the Royal Marines. » | Sunday, September 11, 2012

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH – PICTURE GALLERY: Prince Charles and Duchess of Cornwall attend a Remembrance Sunday service in New Zealand » | Sunday, November 11, 2012

In Flanders Fields
By Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD (1872-1918) Canadian Army
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved, and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders Fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders Fields.
[Source: Arlington Cemetery]